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Friday, June 30, 2017

Thursday Movie Picks #155: TMP Television Edition - Medical Drama

Hello there and welcome to Thursday Movie Picks a weekly series where you share movie picks each Thursday. The
rules are simple: based on the theme of the week pick three to five movies and tell us why you picked them. For further details and the schedule visit the
series main page here.

So it's the last Thursday of the month and today's TV theme is Medical Drama. While I do watch a couple of such shows, none are for me must see TVs. Most of them are episodic so I usually watch them on and off. My three picks are the current dramas that I sometimes watch.

Grey's Anatomy (2005 - )

This show has gone on for so long, I'm guessing it will soon tie with ER. I probably watched it weekly for the first two seasons but have only seen it sporadically afterwards. It's a pretty easy show to start watching again even if you stopped watching for awhile; I don't even know how the story lines ended for some of the older characters that are now gone.Chicago Med (2015 - ) So I've checked out all the Chicago series (but not all of the episodes) and Chicago Med is one of the better ones. It's not a stand out drama, but competent I would say. The worst was Chicago Justice, so it's no wonder they got cancelled.

Remedy (2014 - 2015)

This is a Canadian TV series which I think has already been cancelled so it only has 2 seasons. Once again, like Chicago Med, not a stand out but nonetheless is a competent medical drama.

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Though almost everyone I know loves Grey's Anatomy, or did when it was fresh, I found it nothing special so I never became a follower. Didn't watch Chicago Med but I was a Chicago Hope viewer and liked that one. Haven't heard of Remedy but I like the title.

Medical shows are thick on the ground which made picking easy and difficult. So many choices! I ended up going with three older favorites.

St. Elsewhere (1982-1988)-Set in Boston’s financially strapped St. Eligius Hospital (the St. Elsewhere of the title so called due to its less than exalted place in the city residents hearts despite it being a teaching hospital), headed by Drs. Donald Westphall, Daniel Auschlander and autocratic Mark Craig (Ed Flanders, Norman Lloyd and William Daniels respectively). The series follows the overlapping lives of many incoming residents, doctors and patients and their families, including something of a first for serial TV Westphall’s autistic son Tommy (Chad Allen). Critically acclaimed series that though never a big ratings success managed to run for six seasons as a prestige show for the network. This served as the launching pad for many stars including series regulars Denzel Washington, Alfre Woodard, Mark Harmon and Helen Hunt. Laced with an absurdist edge the show could be hysterically funny and also crushingly sad, sometimes within the same episode.

M*A*S*H (1972-1983)-Long running comedy/drama show based on Robert Altman’s film about life in a Mobil Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War featuring the travails, both funny and sad, of Dr. “Hawkeye” Pierce (Alan Alda), Head Nurse Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan (Loretta Swit)-both of whom stayed throughout the series run-and the various others surgeons & aides-Trapper John, B.J., Henry Blake, Colonel Potter, Radar O’Reilly, Charles Winchester, Frank Burns, the crossdressing Max Klinger and Father Mulcahy who passed through. Beginning as a light hearted comedy this morphed through the years into one of the finest dramedy series in history. What kept it vital aside from excellent writing was the flow of characters during the years allowing for fresh interactions and situations.

Medical Center (1971-1976)-Dr. Paul Lochner (James Daly-father of performers Tyne & Timothy) is the chief of staff at a large L.A. based hospital. Experienced and capable he is friendly with the young associate professor of surgery Dr. Joe Gannon (Chad Everett) but they often clash over medical procedures for the patients. Lochner favoring tried and true methods while Gannon believes in more experimental methods. Weekly different challenges present themselves to the doctors and nurses, overseen by Head Nurse Eve Wilcox (Audrey Totter).